"A Place of Comfort" (Lewis Lain)
Acrylic and cardboard on resonant window. 23” x 27”
Often with my paintings, I find I initially dig too deep into their meaning and when I bring the results of this thought to my conversations with 53947, he quickly dismisses them, encouraging a new perspective. A place of comfort is one of those paintings. 53947 sits, six (the orange cat) sits perched on the chair. He leans-in, a question—a declaration. Outside, the cupcake is taking someone away never to be seen again.Inside, all is calm. Thin walls separate grand events—all equal in occurrence and importance—interlocked.
Lewis Lain is a multi-medium narrative artist and illustrator living in Rogers Park, Chicago. His work makes use of recycled ‘resonant’ material such as re-claimed windows and found-glass as canvas with cardboard and acrylic. The result: multi-dimensional paintings punctuated with use of bold color, layers and line-work. Further exploration with 'resonant' material led to the creation of an ongoing recycled-cardboard sculptural series, "cardboard forge." Recent exhibitions include an installation for "Because Art Residency” at hairpin gallery, ‘ephemera,' 'here and(there),' ' the next wave art salon,' 'residence @ argo tea,' and 'respond.react' (an official 2011 chicago artist month exhibition) in 2010, lewis completed a mural on the greenline embankment commissioned by the village of Oak Park. In 2013, Lewis won first place at the 20th annual 'Artist of the Wall' mural festival. Currently, Lewis is illustrating for Los Angeles author, Roby Duncan's comic, 'smaller totems' (www.smallertotems.com)
About my Paintings:
When we look through a window and see a tree, light energy from the tree passes through the glass, hits our eyes, activates our rods and cones and produces the image of a tree. I have come to believe that some of that energy gets trapped in that glass every time that system is created. I refer to this trapped energy as “resonant energy” and this phenomenon is at the core of why I am a working artist. My art is made possible by my perception of the manipulation of resonant energy in old, rehab-reclaimed windows. The glass seems to quiver with energy waiting to be formed.